The Mac Weekly

Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: The Arts

Media Credit: www.rollingstone.com

Last month I received an e-mail confirming something I have dreaded since the early morning of Aug. 16, 2004. The Vermont-based jam band Phish had announced their reunion tour.

The wee hours of that day marked the end of Phish's two-day Coventry festival, the last stop on their farewell tour. Along with 80,000 others, my father and I tolerated a farcical amount of hardship to attend this concert, hell-bent on witnessing what was relentlessly plugged as Phish's epic last stand.

The week prior to the event, heavy rains flooded the festival grounds in northern Vermont, so badly that it became impossible for the venue to accommodate all of the fans' cars and tents. A horrific traffic jam resulted, and, along with 30 miles of our concert companions, my father and I spent the night in our car on the rural Vermont highway. By the morning, it was clear that cars were not getting us to the event. Rather than accepting defeat, thousands of irritable fans ditched their vehicles, gathered as much camping gear and booze as they could carry, and began walking several miles to Coventry. My father and I joined the leagues of first-world refugees, embarking on the "headiest" Hajj in history.

It took me awhile to admit to myself that as far as Coventry went, the ends did not justify the means. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio was too blatantly inebriated to play cohesive psychedelic rock, and despite an overwhelming adolescent devotion for my favorite band, after several days of poor sleep, malnourishment, deplorable hygiene, wading through fields of mud, and breathing nothing but secondhand pot smoke, I had become wholeheartedly attached to the notion that Phish would never play again. Thus I became irate at the announcement of a reunion less than five years after Phish's "pharewell."

Since Coventry, I have prayed that my ability to resist this stigmatized band would never again be tested. Admittedly, the crux of this agony stems from the fact that I actually assessed whether or not I could feasibly attend the reunion.
This poses the obvious question: What is it about Phish is so compelling that people will readily shirk their duties and surrender their trust funds to attend a Phish show?

The short answer is, they play an exemplary concert.

Phish holds the traditional rock arrangement of four talented musicians: guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, bassist Mike Gordon and keyboardist Page McConnell. What sets them apart from other groups is that their most fundamental element lies in band dynamics, rather than song writing. Thus, if any member dies, or decides to quit, the band is done. No one is dispensable and no one will be replaced.

Continued...

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